Her Spite: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (The Forgotten Elites Book 2) Eden Beck (best book club books TXT) 📖

I need to be careful, or I might accidentally turn him and the rest of the squad into genuinely productive members of society.

“Hi,” I say to the girl at the front desk as soon as he’s gone. I smile so widely that it makes my cheeks hurt.

“Hey,” she smiles back awkwardly. She’s a far cry from the chatty head of staff at the senior center.

I feel a small stab of disappointment at the thought. I liked that assignment more than I’m willing to admit. Just like I’ll miss my students—Grace and Alice, especially—more than I’m willing to admit.

I’m guessing by this new girl’s reaction that she’s not used to being greeted by the volunteers. That doesn’t surprise me considering that Bridget is a bitch and Warren has one of the most standoffish personalities that I know.

“Is this your first day?” she asks. “I thought there was a different girl assigned to this job.”

“Oh yeah, Bridget,” I say casually as if it should be common knowledge already. “She had to be reassigned; something about how she and her brother weren’t really getting along at the same assignment anymore. So, they moved me in here to take her place and work with Warren instead.

“Who is Warren?” she asks.

Seriously? He’s been here so little that even the staff that’s supposed to be logging his volunteer hours doesn’t know who he is? How do these people get away with this shit?

“Warren is Bridget’s brother,” I say to clarify, “and he works here too, but with me now.”

“Oh, right,” the girl nods. “I guess I never see him around.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, using my most innocent and naïve voice. She’s making this too easy. “He was just here a minute ago. I’ve really been looking forward to working with him. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we’re here when we’re supposed to be. I’m big on punctuality, so if either of us is late, then it means something terribly unforeseen has happened.”

She looks a little startled.

“Good to know,” she says. “I’ll make sure I get your hours logged right on time for you.”

“Thanks,” I smile as I skip away to go figure out what I’m supposed to be doing now.

That ought to do it. She’ll be keeping better track now that she thinks I’m on top of things.

This must be how Bridget keeps such a tight grip on everyone around her. If you let them know you’re watching, suddenly, everyone is dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s.

If she thinks I’m tracking hours, then she’s going to start tracking hours too. Plus, I’m sure she’s happy to have someone to deal with who isn’t Bridget.

Over the next few weeks, the volunteering—like class—is pretty uneventful. It is mostly just a bunch of cleaning that happens to pass the time by quietly, since Warren does his best to steer clear of me. Every once in a while, I look up to catch him glaring at me, but for the most part, he tries to avoid me at all costs.

I know I have the other boys to work on too, but they’ll take more time. Sterling would sniff out an act like this from a mile away, but Warren … Warren is so awfully easy to influence, so I focus on him while his sister is otherwise occupied.

Yet one more thing I have to thank her for.

I’m starting to wonder if Warren’s found a way to get out of volunteering entirely one Friday afternoon when he still hasn’t shown up even as I’m finishing all of my tasks. But when I see him walking in right before the end of the volunteer block, I realize even he has to play by some of the rules.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growls at me as soon as he spots me waiting. For him, of course. He keeps his voice low so the girl at the front desk can’t hear him, but I can still easily make out his tone.

I just cock my head to the side and keep my own voice as honey-sweet as ever.

“What are you talking about?”

“She called the school to see where I was,” he says, nodding his head in her direction. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

I seriously can’t even stop myself from giggling about it. I guess I’ve made even better friends, or at least an impression, with the staff girl than I thought.

“That’s hysterical,” I say to him with no attempt at concealing my glee. “Guess you should probably start showing up then.”

“How dare you tell me what I should be doing,” he seethes. “I should … I should …”

For a moment, his face grows red, and I think he’s actually going to try to threaten me. But I don’t give him the chance.

“Chill,” I say. “It’s not like I’m forcing you to stay here. Go ahead and walk out if you want. There’s the door.”

For a second, Warren looks mad enough to hit me. But of course, he doesn’t. Instead, he just grumbles something about me being a bitch and walks away to go start his shift chores. I glance over and give the girl at the desk a satisfied smile, and she returns the gesture. I kind of feel like she and I are on the same team now. Not everyone at Ridgecrest likes to see the rich and popular kids get away with everything.

I start my section of the cleaning. It amazes me how dirty the campus can get in the course of a day’s time … almost as much as I was surprised to learn that this was the assignment that Bridget and Warren ended up with in the first place. Everyone else has to volunteer off-campus. Somehow they got the cushy job here. Guess it leaves them extra time to terrorize the rest of the student body.

Bridget doesn’t seem like the type that’s too fond of getting on her knees to clean, but